Diane Heditsian

Diane supports researchers at the University of California San Francisco Breast Oncology Program and Stanford Health, translating their medical science findings into the clinic. She serves as a research advocate for three national clinical trials: the WISDOM Study, advancing precision breast cancer screening; the I-SPY Trial testing novel agents for women at high risk for recurrent breast cancer; and biomarker-driven targeted therapy for late recurring ER-positive breast cancer at Stanford.

As a National Breast Cancer Coalition Project LEAD and Research Advocacy Network-trained science advocate, Diane is a consumer reviewer for both the Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Breast Cancer Research Program and Susan G. Komen grants. She is a member of Komen’s Advocates in Science and an advocate for the National Cancer Institute’s MetNet Consortium through the Christina Curtis laboratory at Stanford.

Diane often addresses physician, researcher, and patient audiences nationally and internationally on breast cancer topics. She developed and presented An Advocate’s Prescription for Survivorship Care at ASCO’s inaugural Cancer Survivorship Symposium. For two decades, she has been serving as a breast cancer peer counselor including with Living Beyond Breast Cancer and UCSF Health’s Breast Care Center. Internationally, Diane is a member of Inspire2Live: The Patient Voice. She was awarded a Fulbright Specialist designation in Cancer Advocacy to help develop cancer advocacy programs around the world.